Author: Kevin O’Rourke

Spain

The news that Spanish unemployment is now at 24.4% deserves a thread. It is the latest reminder of the complete and utter failure of the Eurozone’s absurd strategy of generalized, undifferentiated austerity for all, simultaneously. What is so frustrating is that it was obvious in 2010 that this would be the result, which is why some of us objected at the time to what was happening: you didn’t have to be a genius to figure it out. I don’t see any way that the Eurozone will survive in its current form unless the macroeconomic policy mix changes, and I’m not sure it will change, even if M Hollande gets elected.

Andres Velasco at INET

There is an absolutely terrific talk by Andres Velasco here. It would be great if European (and Irish) policy makers would take these kinds of arguments to heart, but at this stage in the Eurozone crisis I am not sure that they will before it is too late.

A tale of two depressions, updated

Barry Eichengreen and I provide an update to our original Vox column here.

Politics in hard times

Back in 2010, as the world turned austerian, people like Adam Posen started to worry about the political consequences. Indeed, so did I.  Alan de Bromhead, Barry Eichengreen and I have a new working paper which looks at the political consequences of economic hard times in the 1920s and 1930s, which you can read here.

Greek precedents

Rui Esteves discusses nineteenth century Greek debt crises here.